Wash/Decon/Polish steps/products?

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ClintIsKING

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First off, good afternoon to everyone as this is my first post!

After many times of visiting the site looking for answers to questions I've decided to sign up.

In 2018 I bought a new Chevy Colorado and being lazy, I decided to run it through the car wash a couple times during the first few months of owning it. Now, I'm left with the effects, light swirls and minor scratches. Since then, I've started to build up my arsenal with cleaning products from all different companies based on what I've read here and elsewhere.

Within the next week or two I plan to do a complete detail now that the weather has cooled down here in NJ. I want to wash, decon, clay, polish, and wax the whole truck for the winter than continue with regular washes weekly or bi-weekly. I'm looking for advice on my plan of attack and any recommendations on changes and or products.

Pre wash:
- rinse
- foam cannon with CG honeydew let sit for a few minutes
- rinse

Wash:
- wheels/wheel wells
- truck wash with Purple Power Boat & RV to strip previous wax

Decon:
- Iron-X
- rinse
- clay with nanoskin fine mitt w/ ONR

My main questions are:

1)After claying, should I use an LSP then proceed to polishing? Or should I do another wash then LSP?

2) Also, I've researched many hours on all this and am stuck on what I should use for the polishing/paint correction stage. I'll be using a TorqX but product wise? I've looked into CG V36/V38 combo, CG VSS, Meguiars 105/205 combo?

3) Anything you would change in my approach? Whether its something I should or shouldn't do? Or use?
I everything listed aside from Iron-X and the polishes that I'll end up using based on responses.

Thank you all in advance!
 
1- The LSP goes after polishing
2- I never cared for the CG polishes, I’d recommend looking into the Griot Garage Boss line, very easy to work with and they perform.
3- everybody has their own prep wash routine, if it were me I’d wash, Iron-X(rinse) then use your Nanoskin mitt with car soap and call it a day. Any old wax will be removed during the polishing stage
 
As far as polishes to use I would look into M110 over M105. M105 will give you a headache to where you will hate the product. Not to mention the amount of dust generated.

M110 and M210 are the newest polishes from Meguiar's and are designed to be used with either other. M205 is nice to have as well as it does work well for one step polishes. Although not the best at finishing on soft paints but this is where M210 comes into play. These are SMAT (non-diminishing abrasive polishes).

You may also want to consider these others:

Sonax Cut Max, Sonax Perfect Finish or Sonax EX 04-06 (these are diminishing abrasives)
3D ACA compound, 3D One compounding polish
Optimum Hyper Polish with one of the above mentioned compounds

What LSP are you going with? Wax, sealant or coating?
 
Thanks for the info. LSP I was undecided. I was thinking on Turtle Wax Seal N Shine which I have on now and love it.
 
Nice.

Just to complicate your life even further, (because that's what we do here.....LOL) I would also look into the Griot's creams.

They work very well, have almost zero dusting, are sun friendly (maybe not a black car in Florida....), and remove very easily.
 
PaulMys said:
Nice.

Just to complicate your life even further, (because that's what we do here.....LOL) I would also look into the Griot's creams.

They work very well, have almost zero dusting, are sun friendly (maybe not a black car in Florida....), and remove very easily.
Click to expand...

My one regret is getting the truck in black. I should have got the gray one I test drove before hand lol.

Any recommendations in the Griots line specifically?
 
ClintIsKING said:
My one regret is getting the truck in black. I should have got the gray one I test drove before hand lol.

Any recommendations in the Griots line specifically?
Click to expand...

Lol.

As you see in my avatar, I went with the grey one. :)

I have the Griot's Fast Correcting Cream (a compound, but finishes off so nicely you'd swear it was a polish on most surfaces).

And the Griot's Correcting Cream. (Just a great all-around polish that finishes with a brilliant shine).
 
PaulMys said:
Lol.

As you see in my avatar, I went with the grey one. :)

I have the Griot's Fast correcting Cream (a compound, but finishes off so nicely you'd swear it was a polish on most surfaces).

And the Griot's Correcting Cream. (Just a great all-around polish that finishes with a brilliant shine).
Click to expand...

Awesome. I will look into them.
 
So after watching some videos, researching here on the forums, and recommendations, I think I'm going to go with Griot's Correcting Cream with their orange pads on my Torqx.

How many pads should I purchase to do my whole truck?
What LSP should I use after?

Last step is sealant/wax :confused:
 
upwards of 6 or so depending on truck size. You don’t want to over-work the pads with accumulated product and have to stop and clean/dry them.
Figure 1 for the hood and 2-3 per side of the truck. In the end, they're cheap.

I know Mike Phillips did an article or so on this topic.
 
ClintIsKING said:
So after watching some videos, researching here on the forums, and recommendations, I think I'm going to go with Griot's Correcting Cream with their orange pads on my Torqx.

How many pads should I purchase to do my whole truck?
What LSP should I use after?

Last step is sealant/wax :confused:
Click to expand...

At least 6. Better to have 10-12.

It's way better to change out pads frequently than to overwork them and shorten their lives.


As for LSP, Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant 3.0, Collinite 845, or Collinite 476s are my 3 favorites. (But there are tons of others). :)
 
I was blown away at the difference between the V-line polishes and Griots BOSS. I actually was upset at the amount of extra work I did with the V stuff. It was so good with the lake country thin pros on GG6. Addictive good.
 
PaulMys said:
At least 6. Better to have 10-12.

It's way better to change out pads frequently than to overwork them and shorten their lives.


As for LSP, Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant 3.0, Collinite 845, or Collinite 476s are my 3 favorites. (But there are tons of others). :)
Click to expand...

Damn, I wasn't expecting to need that many.

gsmarquis said:
I was blown away at the difference between the V-line polishes and Griots BOSS. I actually was upset at the amount of extra work I did with the V stuff. It was so good with the lake country thin pros on GG6. Addictive good.
Click to expand...

Yea I've settled on the Griots line.
 
ClintIsKING said:
Damn, I wasn't expecting to need that many.
Click to expand...

You can get by with with less, but clean them on fly often like Mike teaches in his books/videos.

Also, a pad cleaning brush is a must in my opinion. It'll help knock off the excess product as you go.

But, these methods are still no substitute for having enough pads.
 
My son and I started his car with the thought we would use one pad, and cleaning in on the fly as Mike teaches, however, I believe we were using to much product and saturated the pad. So we stopped after doing the hood and front fenders, and I ordered more pads and some pad conditioner. Wolfgang Pad Werks Polishing Pad Conditioner.

We finished by using the pad conditioner and using one pad per major section (driver side minus front fender, passenger side minus front fender, back end). Also, I believe the pad conditioner really helped prevent saturating the pad. It seemed to keep the product on the top of the pad better and seemed to improve cleaning on the fly. In the future I will use a minimum of 4 of each polishing pad.

For reference we used:

Step 1: Menzerna HC400 Polish on a Lake Country 5.5" CCS Orange Pad. Menzerna Heavy Cut Compound, Fast Gloss 400, FG400 compound , CCS foam buffing pads,foam polishing pads,lake country foam pads,foam polisher pads,buffer pads,lake county pads,porter cable pads,pads for air sander

Step 2: Menzerna SF3500 on a Lake Country 5.5" CCS White Pad. Menzerna Nano Polish PO 106 FA, Menzerna Final Polish, Nano abrasives, finishing polish, professional polish

Step 3: Menzerna Powerlock on a Lake Country 5.5" CCS Black Pad. Jescar Power Lock Polymer Paint Sealant, Menzerna auto sealant, car sealant, paint sealant protectant
 
PaulMys said:
Nice.

Just to complicate your life even further, (because that's what we do here.....LOL) I would also look into the Griot's creams.

They work very well, have almost zero dusting, are sun friendly (maybe not a black car in Florida....), and remove very easily.
Click to expand...


That's only part of what we do here, we also help you spend lots and lots of money on products, tools and invest a tremendous amount of your time reading :).
 
mdbenge said:
That's only part of what we do here, we also help you spend lots and lots of money on products, tools and invest a tremendous amount of your time reading :).
Click to expand...

Yes sir.

No doubting this! ;)
 
5js said:
My son and I started his car with the thought we would use one pad, and cleaning in on the fly as Mike teaches, however, I believe we were using to much product and saturated the pad. So we stopped after doing the hood and front fenders, and I ordered more pads and some pad conditioner. Wolfgang Pad Werks Polishing Pad Conditioner.

We finished by using the pad conditioner and using one pad per major section (driver side minus front fender, passenger side minus front fender, back end). Also, I believe the pad conditioner really helped prevent saturating the pad. It seemed to keep the product on the top of the pad better and seemed to improve cleaning on the fly. In the future I will use a minimum of 4 of each polishing pad.

For reference we used:

Step 1: Menzerna HC400 Polish on a Lake Country 5.5" CCS Orange Pad. Menzerna Heavy Cut Compound, Fast Gloss 400, FG400 compound , CCS foam buffing pads,foam polishing pads,lake country foam pads,foam polisher pads,buffer pads,lake county pads,porter cable pads,pads for air sander

Step 2: Menzerna SF3500 on a Lake Country 5.5" CCS White Pad. Menzerna Nano Polish PO 106 FA, Menzerna Final Polish, Nano abrasives, finishing polish, professional polish

Step 3: Menzerna Powerlock on a Lake Country 5.5" CCS Black Pad. Jescar Power Lock Polymer Paint Sealant, Menzerna auto sealant, car sealant, paint sealant protectant
Click to expand...

I was going to try 7 (8 in total to have an extra). 1 for front fenders, 2 for doors. 2 for quarters. 1 for hood. 1 for roof/tailgate.
 
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